Camera/Light/Image Settings

Camera
Randy's camera is an Olympus Camedia C-4040, 4.1 megapixel digital with 128MB smart media card, direct USB cable from camera to PC USB port. Each raw high resolution image takes approximately 5.2 MB of space, allowing for about 21 images before smart media card becomes full. Images are then downloaded from camera to PC, where they are named, cropped, sized, and edited. It is typically much faster to just copy all files from camera to PC, and then use image editing software on PC with fast disk access. When managing many images, it is very useful to label each beer can and name the images to match label on the can before any other editing!
While many types of cameras should work, and each camera will have its own unique controls, the following were changed from the Olympus C-4040 defaults:
Flash turned off Macro mode turned on (allows close up images) Digital zoom turned on (allows better auto focus) Images captured as 1600 x 1200 TIFF (about 5.2 MB per image) Exposure adjusted from -1.0 to +1.0 depending on beer can and filter
Light source/filter
A standard utility light with standard size light bulb was used to provide light source, angled slightly to brighten a beer can but not produce high glare. As for light bulb, a 60 watt soft white was used for most images, adjusting the camera exposure higher or lower as necessary. However, 75 watt and 150 watt bulbs were also used for some cans. Note: if you are using a 150 watt bulb be careful, these get very hot, and during early picture experimentation I actually melted the lens enclosure of my camera, requiring a costly repair! Best recommendation is to keep camera/lens completely outside of the camera box.
Fig 1: Standard clear flourescent filter	Fig 2: Blue plastic wrapped flourescent filter
The utility light is set on top of one of two filters depending on color of beer can. In Fig 1 the filter is a simple piece of flourescent light cover, available fairly cheaply at most hardware stores. This clear filter somewhat difuses the light and seems to help eliminate most glare.
Now for cans with either red or yellow (of which many Michigan beer cans fall into this category), images taken with above camera settings and filter would typically have reds turned to pink, and yellows "washed out" to a pale color. Whether or not this is a feature of the camera used (e.g. attempt to prevent photo "red-eye"), it was not possible to prevent this by adjusting camera settings. Instead, a "blue filter" was used to alter the light source. This filter is simply a thin layer of transparent blue plastic wrapped around a piece of flourescent light cover. With this blue filter and overexposure of +0.7 or +1.0 on the camera, images of red and yellow cans came out with much truer colors. Note in Fig 2 how the blue plastic has somewhat melted! Even 60 watt bulbs can get hot if let set too long...
Image settings/sizes
As mentioned in most HTML books, any referenced image should include both the image's height and width within the HTML. This allows the web browser to process things like formatting and centering of text without first need to fully load the image to determine height/size (much more important over internet than local disk). All HTML generated for MBC will specify a height and width for each beer can image.
Not only is the above of interest to performance, it is also just as important for consistency. To that end, all beer can images included in MBC will have the exact same height/size depending on can size. The image editing process went as such:
Copy images from camera to PC Use Olympus Camedia software to view thumbnails and rename all TIFF files Open each TIFF file in Adobe Photoshop Rotate can image 90 degrees clockwise (remember camera was mounted vertically) Crop each beer can with approximately same spacing around each can Change number of pixels from default of 72/dpi to 1200/dpi Resize each beer can to appropriate pixel height (see following tables) Adjust canvas size to appropriate pixel width (see following tables) Save as {filename}_Fx.jpg file (full back, front, left or right image) Repeat height resize and save for Large, Medium, and Small images
The following tables show pixel sizes of each image depending on type of beer can:
12 oz Flat/Tab Full 460 x 880 pixels Large 267 x 510 pixels Medium 162 x 310 pixels Small  65 x 125 pixels	12 oz Cone Top Full 420 x 880 pixels Large 243 x 510 pixels Medium 148 x 310 pixels Small  60 x 125 pixels
Crowntainer Full 460 x 880 pixels Large 267 x 510 pixels Medium 162 x 310 pixels Small  65 x 125 pixels	16 oz Flat/Tab Full 360 x 880 pixels Large 209 x 510 pixels Medium 127 x 310 pixels Small  51 x 125 pixels
8oz Flat/Tab Full 500 x 680 pixels Large 279 x 380 pixels Medium 191 x 260 pixels Small  92 x 125 pixels	Quart Cone Full 420 x 880 pixels Large 243 x 510 pixels Medium 148 x 310 pixels Small  60 x 125 pixels